The Thicket at State Legislatures

Not Even a Record for a Deliberative Body Since Wisconsin in the Age of Eisenhower

by Karl Kurtz

I enjoy reading Gail Collins in The New York Times as much as I do any columnist, not because I always agree with her but because of her clever and engaging prose.  Here's a recent example in a column last weekend, "Putting the Fond in Farewell."

Nowhere is the need for the graceful exit more apparent than in our politics. This week Senator Robert Byrd turned 92. He has been in office for more than 50 years. That’s an all-time record for Congress. In fact, it is probably a record for every deliberative body since Athens in the Age of Pericles.

That's a marvelous turn of phrase, but unfortunately, Ms. Collins, it's not even a record for a deliberative body since Wisconsin in the age of Eisenhower.  Sen. Byrd was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958, two years after Sen. Fred Risser (photo) was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly.  A Democrat from Madison, Risser fought the tide of the landslide reelection of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. Risser was elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 1962 and has been serving there ever since.

A nit-picker could say that Byrd is the longest-serving in the same chamber of a "deliberative body" (compared to Risser who has served in two different chambers in the same state legislature), but we would suggest caution in making that claim.  NCSL has pretty good knowledge of records for length of service by state legislators since the 20th century, but we can't track earlier periods in American history. 

And for an international perspective, check out "Longest Serving Legislator in the World? Not" about Chaudharry Prem Singh, who was elected to the Delhi Legislative Assembly in the same year that Sen. Byrd was elected to the U.S. Senate.  We don't know what month Chaudharry was elected, but the odds are that it was earlier than Byrd's November 2008 election and that he talk office before Byrd on Jan. 3, 1959.

There is a List for That Tweet

by Meagan Dorsch

This month, Twitter unveiled a new feature called Lists. It's a way for you to organize your followers or the people you are following on Twitter. 

The National Conference of State Legislatures tweets daily under NCSLCOMM (this site is operated out of our communications division, hence the COMM) and we have decided to put this new list feature to good use.

On our Twitter page, we have made our "lists" available to our followers. You can now find state legislators, legislative staff, caucuses and NCSL staff on Twitter. We would be remiss if we did not thank NCSL policy staff and the Legislative Information and Communications Staff Section (LINCS) at NCSL for helping us compile these Twitter addresses.

We know that we were not able to capture every state legislator or caucus that is active on Twitter, so this is where your help comes in. Please send us a direct message on Twitter (or reply to this blog) and let us know where to find your lawmaker or staffer.

We hope you enjoy and use our "lists" and we look forward to adding more names in the coming weeks.

Follow NCSL on Twitter and Facebook and Ning!

Would you Let the KKK into your Town Hall Meeting?

by Karl Kurtz

Lee Hamilton has another excellent Commentary on Congress, "Whatever their Tone, We Need Town Hall Meetings."  It begins:

Years ago, when I was still in Congress, I pulled up one day to address a public meeting in a remote and very rural part of Indiana. The sheriff, a friend of mine, met me outside the small volunteer fire house where I was to speak. "The Ku Klux Klan is here in full regalia," he told me. "If you'd like, I'll keep them out of your meeting."

For just a second, I'll confess, I weighed his offer. But I was not in the business of trying to keep constituents out of public gatherings — even if they were in the KKK. No, I told my friend, the Klansmen could come in, as long as they removed their hoods. There's no place for anonymity in a public meeting, I said.

And so about twenty-five of them — hoodless — marched down the aisle made by the rickety folding chairs set up in the tiny firehouse and took their places in the front. Was this or was this not a Christian nation, they demanded. And what did I think about Jewish influence in Hollywood and on the media? I responded calmly, but their persistent overtones of anti-Semitism wore out the audience's patience. Eventually they left, and the meeting continued.

And concludes:

Over my years in Congress, I conducted hundreds, if not thousands, of town-hall meetings. Almost every time I came away with the feeling that this was precisely what I was meant to be doing — engaging with my constituents in a small part of the dialogue of democracy. Just as often, these meetings reinforced my confidence in the fairness, decency and judgment of the American people.

I've been in Algeria for the last week with a team of legislators and staff, leading a couple of workshops for Algerian legislators.  One of our topics was citizen engagement and  constituent communication. We emphasized the importance of town hall meetings and talked about how to set them up.  We have a great team here, consisting of North Dakota Rep. Rae Ann Kelsch, New Jersey Assemblymember Upendra Chivikula, Minnesota Senate legislative counsel Peter Wattson, Florida policy research director Gary Vanlandingham, and NCSL's Christy Delafield.  They did a great job of carrying Lee Hamilton's point, but after reading his commentary, I wished that he had been here with us to tell this story.

See our previous postings in The Thicket about town hall meetings starting with "Town Hall Meetings: Building Trust Online."

State Legislation Opposing Certain Health Reform

by Meagan Dorsch

States have complicated shared power relationship with the federal government in regulating various aspects of the health insurance market and in enacting health reforms.

In this edition of The Buzz, we sit down with Dick Cauchi, program director for NCSL's health program. Dick explains the actions that some states have taken to block certain health care reform.

These are actions that could put states in a binding position, aiming to block mandates that could come from future health care legislation either in their own state or from the federal government. Dick also takes the time to talk about what it could mean for health care down the road in these states and the unique situation in Arizona with its pending constitutional amendment.

Of course some states have been players in health reform since 2003, long before congressional actions on this issue.  

Listen to our podcast (8:06) and turn to NCSL for additional resources on state health reform and federal health reform.

Legislators Serve Military and State

by NCSL Staff

As the United States fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a handful of state legislators are serving in their state's National Guard or Reserve units while holding elected office, according to a new survey from the National Network of Legislators in the Military and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Currently, 65 state legislators serve in the U.S. military in reserve units or National Guard units. Of those 65 state legislators in the military, 31 have been deployed to another country while also serving in their respective statehouse.

Although there are no federal laws that prohibit state lawmakers from serving on active duty with the military, there are specific requirements for lawmakers who are activated and/or deployed. A Department of Defense directive, revised on Feb. 19, 2008, generally prohibits a full-time military service member on active duty from holding civil office in state government. For reserve members on active duty service for 270 days or less, this directive allows members to hold an elected office "provided there is no interference with the performance of military duties." Since September 11, 2001, increasing numbers of National Guard and Reserve members have been called up for longer and more frequent tours of duty.

Recognizing the difficulties elected officials who are called to active duty may face, state legislators have introduced legislation that addresses maintaining the elected position of the public official.

Enacted this year, Arkansas specified that an elected official retains the public office upon returning from active military duty. In 2008, Louisiana allowed for temporary successors to be appointed if a legislator is called to active duty for more than 180 days and Maine exempted National Guard members from the law prohibiting an unclassified employee of the executive branch from being a candidate for elective office in a partisan public election.

In 2004, Indiana established a procedure for an elected office to take a leave of absence when called to active duty and for the appointment of a person to temporarily perform the officeholder’s duties during the leave. Click here to review the 2003-2009 state legislation.

For more information on state legislators serving in the military, read NCSL press release.

Bipartisan Beltway Committee Seeks to “Modernize” U.S. Election System

by Tom Intorcio

Voter registration can sometimes be a highly charged and partisan issue, so it is worth noting that advisers from recent Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns have recently aligned themselves to propose a new system. Trevor Potter, former general counsel to Republican John McCain’s 2008 campaign and Mark Elias, general counsel to Democrat John Kerry’s 2004 campaign are co-chairs of the Committee to Modernize Voter Registration.

The group is “dedicated to bringing the voter registration system into the 21st century by automating the outmoded system that relies on paper forms being filled out by voters and manually processed by local election officials,” according to its inaugural press release. Specifically, the Committee proposes: automated (universal) registration, within a “portable” system to obviate the need to re-register after a voter moves, and a “fail-safe mechanism” for any Election Day problems. Ostensibly, the fail-safe component would be same-day registration, currently used in nine states. A recent story by Pam Fessler of NPR’s All Things Considered gives more background on the 13-member Committee.

Run Government Like a Business: Who has the Time?

by Brian Weberg

We don't seem to hear it as much as we used to, but the claim that government would be better if "run like a business" still lurks in political campaigns and in criticisms of government inefficiencies (we even used it in a Thicket post a few years ago).  Today I was reminded of yet another reason why this prescription so thoroughly misses the mark.  In particular, government leaders--and especially those new to the job--simply do not have the luxury of time or resources available to their private sector counterparts to learn the levers of leadership and to deliver results.

My "ahah" came while listening in on a "teleforum" featuring Patricia Wheeler, an executive coach at The Levin Group.  Wheeler summarized a recent market study conducted by the Institute of Executive Development that examined "the transitions that top executives make into and through organizations, and the road blocks that can occur in the process..."  The results have interesting implications for the challenges that face legislative leaders and for the impending replacement of baby boomer executives at state legislative staff agencies.

Here are some of the findings:

• 72% of survey respondents reported that internal candidates hired into executive roles need more than three months to get up to speed and at least one-fourth need six months.
• Only 11% reported that orientation programs were effective at helping a new executive to be effective and fewer than one-third said that mentoring was useful. 
• Respondents (68%) identified "lack of interpersonal and leadership skills" as the primary cause for under performance by new executives.

My first reaction was to reflect on the "first 100 days" yardstick we use to measure Presidential effectiveness and the fact that many state legislative sessions are over in 90 days or less.  We expect our new government leaders to produce results starting on their first day on the job.  Three months to get up to speed?  Forget about it.  

Rain in Death Valley, Party Voting in California, Congress and Tiddlywinks

by Karl Kurtz

It's more likely to rain in Death Valley on any given day than it is for a California legislator to vote in opposition to the majority of his or her party on any given bill....

That's the clever lead on a Sacramento Bee story on the extent of party-line voting by members of the California Legislature.  The story analyzes nearly 200,000 (!) individual votes by senators and Assembly members in committee and on the floor to date in the 2009 legislative session, concluding that majority party Democrats voted against the majority of their own party only 1 percent of the time and minority Republicans about 4 percent.  The story has lots of cool graphics and interactive maps.

For the non-California reader, the most interesting thing was this quote:

"California is by far the most polarized state legislature" in the nation, said professor Boris Shor, with the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy Studies, who recently published a study on the ideological composition of legislatures. "California makes the U.S. Congress look like tiddlywinks."

I searched for Shor's study and found an unpublished paper "All Together Now: Putting Congress, State Legislatures, and Individuals in a Common Ideological Space."  Shor's conclusion about California is based not on roll call votes but "on 10 years (1996-2006) of the National Political Awareness Test (NPAT) administered by Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan organization that disseminates information on campaigning [state legislators and members of Congress] to the public at large."

On p. 17 of Shor's paper are two charts that show the ideological polarization of all 50 state legislatures.  On his scale the 5 most polarized legislatures in the United States are California, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Hawaii.  The 5 with the least ideological division between the parties are Idaho, Alaska, Utah, South Dakota and South Carolina. 

The data appear to show that the more liberal states in the country have wide differences between the political parties in the legislature, while the more conservative ones have relatively small differences between Republicans and Democrats.  This does not seem surprising to a more casual observer of state legislative politics, but the data and detail in Shor's paper are interesting and reveal a few surprises (e.g., why are those Ohio Democrats relatively right of their national party scores and what about those apparently leftward leaning--relatively--Wyoming Republicans?) 

Warning: the paper is not for those who are statistically challenged or methodologically faint of heart.

Fire Alarms and Police Patrols: Two Approaches to Legislative Oversight

by Karl Kurtz

American legislatures don't devote enough time or attention to legislative oversight. That's a nearly universal complaint about both Congress and state legislatures. Legislative surveillance and control of the executive branch is hard work, not very rewarding and not something that legislators can easily take credit for, say the critics by way of explanation for the neglect of this function.

But that's a one-dimensional view of legislative oversight, according to University of California Berkeley Professor Bruce Cain in testimony before California Assembly and Senate select committees on improving state government last week. Bruce was drawing on a distinction between police patrol oversight and fire alarm oversight, terms coined in the 1980s by political scientists Matthew McCubbins and Thomas Schwartz.

Police patrol oversight, like its namesake, is the routine work of "patrolling" the executive branch looking for problems in program implementation. It is usually centralized in a legislature in an audit or program review committee with a staff agency that evaluates the performance of executive agencies. It relies on formal committee hearings on agency operations and on interim studies and reports on legislative performance. Police patrol oversight is usually initiated by the legislature and tends to be formal and systematic.

Fire alarm oversight of executive programs by legislatures occurs when interest groups complain about how programs are administered, the media expose programmatic waste or abuse, or constituents report problems with government services that reveal flaws in program design or implementation. It is highly decentralized, relies on outside actors to "sound an alarm", and is less than systematic.

Town Hall Meetings: Building Trust Online

by Pam Greenberg

Participants in a series of online town hall meetings with members of Congress reported significantly improved trust, agreement, and satisfaction with government.  These online meetings, according to a new report by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF)  and a team of academic partners, also found that Internet town hall meetings improved constituents’ approval ratings of members of Congress and increased their probability of voting for the member.   

CMF conducted most of the online town hall meetings with small groups of 15-25 constituents, but one with a group of nearly 200 constituents.  The sessions involved a moderator and a Member of Congress who spoke to constituents via Internet audio.  The constituents posed written questions in real time during the meetings. 

The sessions, conducted with a diverse group of citizens, resulted in hundreds of online questions contributing to high quality discussions about immigration and detainee policy issues. The sessions were extremely popular with constituents—96 percent said they would like to be included in similar events in the future. 

State lawmakers in Washington have held many online town hall meetings in recent years, and legislators in California and Virginia have also held internet or web dialogues with citizens. For another take, see "What's Going on with Town Hall Meetings?"

Photo credit: Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-Picayune archive in nola.com